Nardi! Again!

Pitching coordinator Nardi Contreras was part of a large contingent of Yankees brass to descend onto Waterfront Park for Andrew Brackman’s start last night. Thankfully, Nardi and company stuck around today…you saw the interview with Mark Newman, but here’s a 15-minute interview that Contreras was gracious enough to give to myself, The Trentonian’s Josh Norris and Ken Mandel from The Bucks County Courier Times.

Question: Since the last time we talked, you got to see a lot of guys from the Thunder pitching staff…any general thoughts on what you’ve seen here as a whole?

Contreras: “Well, you’ve got many Major League prospects. There are a lot of pitchers here that are going to pitch in the big leagues…without going to names, I’ll let you guys be the judges of that. I don’t want to leave anybody out. But we’ve got a bunch of Major League prospects, guys that will be pitching in the Major Leagues.”

Question: What have you thought of David Phelps this year?

Contreras: “David Phelps, really good. He’s advanced. He’s got pitches. His curveball…I just watched his bullpen, and his curveball’s better. I know he attacks the zone. He throws a four-seam, two-seam, slider. He’s got the pitches to pitch in the big leagues, the endurance. He’s got the game. He’s got a lot of things going for him. He’s just got to go out across those white lines and continue to pitch and he’ll do really well.”

Question: You got to see Brackman last night…what improvements has he had to make to be able to get up here after that season at Charleston in 2009?

Contreras: “I saw him in Tampa and of course I saw him here last night. The biggest part of it is his confidence level. Yeah, we made some adjustments with his delivery to allow him to be able to throw more strikes than what he did in Charleston. But the other part of it, is that was his first year coming off the operation. Not having pitched, we don’t know how he really felt with his arm. His delivery faltered. But the last month or so in Charleston, he started putting it together. He’s done really well and he’s on his way, no doubt.”

Question: What were the adjustments you had to make with him?

Contreras: “He’s more balanced with his release point and making sure his tempo was not real mechanical, real slow. Now, he doesn’t think about his delivery, he just goes and does his delivery and it becomes automatic, so he’s able to pitch with it.”

Question: Is that more of a delicate process when it’s a guy who is as tall as he is and coming off of surgery?

Contreras: “Well, I don’t know that. Yeah, he’s taller, his limbs are longer…but it took him very little time to do it. But injury-wise, he’s an athlete. He’s not a slug. It’s not that we signed a non-athletic pitcher and all he can do is pitch, and he got hurt. He was an athlete, he was a basketball player, he was capable of doing dual things. It worked out good for him.”

Question: When you do have a guy with height like that…Chris Young, Randy Johnson, those kind of guys come to mind. Do you just kind of accept the walks with guys like that?

Contreras: “No, no, no. Randy Johnson, it was the same thing. I was with the Expos and Randy’s delivery was bad. All of a sudden, he got his delivery down. It had nothing to do with arm strength, he just had bad mechanics coming out of college. Once he got fixed, then he pitched well. It can be with anybody.”

Question: Did you work with Randy with the Expos?

Contreras: “No, I didn’t work with him, because when I got there, I was in Double-A and he was at Triple-A. And then he went to the big leagues, and then we traded him away. Him, (Brian) Holman and (Gene) Harris for (Mark) Langston.”

Question: Speaking of guys coming off of surgery, what can you tell us about the progress of George Kontos?

Contreras: “George, he pitched three innings last night. He’s starting to get himself loose. He was down in extended for a while. He’s coming back, and he’s just going to get better. His first time out wasn’t very good, and then last night he pitched better…I think yesterday might have been his third outing. He’s starting to feel better, and his stuff is starting to get crisper; better location, better command. I don’t know a timetable, but I don’t see him staying there all year.”

Question: There had been some questions about the way he was used, being used in a relief role…is there any sort of plan for a conversion to the bullpen with him right now, or is it just a matter of getting him innings?

Contreras: “De La (Rosa), we’ve got him as a starter now, but you’ll see he’ll never pitch more than five innings. Last night, George had 60 pitches, and had just about enough at three and 45 or whatever the amount of pitches he was. So, these guys coming back off of operations, if we see these guys as relievers in the future, we’ll keep them in those little short stints. That’s where you get Betances, you see him as a power starter, he’s at a higher pitch count. Is he ever going to pitch eight or nine innings this year? No. He’s got a pitch count, and if it’s four innings, six innings or five and a third, that’s going to be plenty for him. We just have to make sure these kids are healthy, have a healthy finish to this year.”

Question: Is Betances down in Tampa for the rest of the year?

Contreras: “I see it as that, but I don’t make that call.”

Question: Manny Banuelos and Brett Marshall are down in the GCL right now…are they likely to be heading up somewhere pretty soon?

Question: You mentioned De La Rosa, and it isn’t unfair to say that he’s struggled quite a bit this season…have you seen anything from him that would tip you off as to why that is?

Contreras: “I haven’t seen him. Just today, we did a little bullpen. There’s a couple things that I made little adjustments to. We’ll see what happens.”

Question: Graham Stoneburner has generated a lot of positive attention lately…can you talk about what you’ve seen from him?

Contreras: “Stoneburner has pitched really, really well. But he’s made one jump already, he’s gone from Charleston to Tampa. I believe he should stay there. Maybe September or the in the playoffs, if Tampa’s not (in), maybe you see him. Otherwise, I see him at Tampa. (Adam) Warren, Warren may be different because he’s been at Tampa all year. Once he’s clicking, you’ve got a chance to maybe see him here, but that’ll be up to him, mostly and making sure that we feel comfortable that he’ll succeed when he comes here.”

Question: When we last spoke about Stoneburner, you talked about his slider a little bit. Have you seen that develop since then?

Contreras: “Yeah, I have seen it, and it’s gotten better. The changeup…he’s pitching well.”

Question: Hector Noesi is someone who’s gotten here recently and been nothing but impressive since he got here. Can you talk about the transition he’s had to make from Tampa to Trenton? You must be pretty pleased with him…

Contreras: “Well, you see, with Noesi, there’s not much to work with with Noesi. What he’s learning is his slider. He can command the fastball, he can command the sinker, he’s got the curveball. Still, he’s got to get a little better with his curveball. But, he’s got the changeup. His delivery’s solid and he can command both sides of the plate. We’ll see what happens.”

Question: Noesi doesn’t seem to have had as tight a pitch limit as some of the other guys here, he threw 111 pitches in one start, which is uncommon for here…

Contreras: “That was the game he pitched nine innings? That won’t happen again. That won’t happen again. No need. We’ve got relievers that are prospects also. It’s not important to pitch nine innings on any day. Noesi probably could have pitched nine innings his last time, too…but there’s no need. There’s guys in the bullpen that need to pitch. Now, if our starter gets knocked out in the second or third inning and our bullpen is being used a lot, well we may have to extend our starters if they’re able to. But if they’re pitching well and the bullpen is rested, they need to pitch also. They’ve got to get to the big leagues too. Nine innings is not important.”

“I had a kid when I was with the Expos, Richie Lewis from Florida State. He was pitching in Double-A. Well, we had a 135 pitch (count) at the time in Jacksonville, and he had a no-hitter in the ninth inning. He got two outs. He hit a certain amount…and then I gave him one more hitter. And he walked the guy and I had to take him out. I gave him the one more hitter. The fans went nuts, crazy. Boo and this and that. It’s about that kid. I gave him one more hitter, a chance. But we didn’t have the prospects in the bullpen like we do here that need to pitch.”

Question: Is there anything else Pat Venditte needs to do to get to Trenton?

Contreras: “Probably just guys moving from here to Triple-A to have openings. But there’s Ortiz…what about Ortiz, look at Ortiz’s numbers. And he closes and the whole bit. Now you’ve got George Kontos in the mix. And Heyer is going to be back here shortly, he’s going to start pitching shortly. (Note: Heyer’s mother passed away and he took an extended leave. He is expected back the first week of July.) So it’s not about one guy. There’s guys here, in Triple-A there’s Albaladejo, Melancon.”

Question: Venditte is considered a novelty now…do you see him having two big league arms, or do you think one day he’ll have to stick with one?

Contreras: “I think he’ll stay both sides and go from there. You’ve got to get people out. Novelties…you’ve got to get people out. He gets people out. When it gets to this level, he’s got to get people out. It’s not about he can throw both hands, that’ll put another thousand people in the stands, it’s about getting people out. And it’s about getting an opening. We’ve been pretty blessed with pitching; George Kontos, here’s a guy who was in Triple-A and he’s in A-Ball right now. J.B. Cox is finding his way back in A-Ball. Duffer’s starting to get his act together. Wordekemper is throwing the ball really well. He was hot here, and there was an opening and he was the one who went.”

4 Responses to “Nardi! Again!”

Always love hearing from Nardi or Newman.
Not sure what word to use for hearing from both of them on the same
day.
Awesome comes to mind.
I don’t recall this happening before,
ever.
Quite a coup.
So it sounds to me like Noesi is thought to be ready for whatever, anything and everything (see you in NY), Venditte is not going to move too fast (I’m being polite) and Laird will be held back as long as possible.
Also, no trade for a reliever (good), but maybe a trade of a reliever.

[…] excellent link to check out. Mike this time sat down with Yankee pitching guru Nardi Contreras. Contreras discusses the mechanics of Brackman, the progress of George Kontos, Noesi and pitch counts, Venditte’s […]

Nardi seems like a very straightforward, enthusiastic guy. Great that he sits down with reporters to talk about all these guys.

Yankee system really gaining now from return of all those TJ- and other surgery survivors. Adding back healthy Betances, Brackman, Kontos and Marshall alone puts Yanks in top ranks of minor league pitching systems. Having Warren, Stoneburner, Noesi performing so well helps too.